Turkish Army Intensify Crackdown on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)

DIYARBAKIR – At least 29 people, including one civilian, have been killed in a Turkish military operation against the banned PKK organisation

DIYARBAKIR – At least 29 people, including one civilian, have been killed in a Turkish military operation against the outlawed PKK organization

OSINT SUMMARY

Monday 22nd February 2016, Turkey’s military announced that it had killed 14 militants a series of the crackdown launched against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast part of the country.

According to the military report, four PKK militants were killed on Sunday 21st February 2016 in the Sur district of the mainly Kurdish region’s largest city of Diyarbakir. The locality has been under curfew since December 2015.

Another 10 PKK militants were killed same day (Sunday) in the Idil districts of Sirnak province that neighbours Syria.

Violence plagued southeast Turkey after the breakdown of a two-year ceasefire between Turkish security forces and the PKK in July 2015.

Turkey has designated PKK as a terrorist group. PKK fights to take control for autonomy for Turkey’s large ethnic Kurdish region in the southeast of the nation.

State-run Anadolu News Agency reported that more than 1,000 PKK militants have been killed since December 2015.

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said 2,000 had been killed in operations ‘at home and abroad’ since early November 2015.